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A Russian warship has fired warning shots at the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender, the Russia's defence ministry has said.
A Russian Su-24 also dropped four bombs in the path of the UK vessel claiming it had entered Russian waters in the Black Sea.
The bomber jet dropped the explosives near Crimea, Interfax quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying on Wednesday.
The Defender left Russian waters soon afterwards, having ventured as much as two miles inside, the ministry said.
The ministry alleged HMS Defender refused to listen to radio warnings before the shots were fired in the contested Russia-Ukrainian waters.
The British military attaché has now been summoned to the Russian defence ministry after the border incident.
"The destroyer had been warned that weapons would be used if it trespasses the border of the Russian Federation. It did not react to the warning," it said.
"As a result of joint actions of the Black Sea Fleet and the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service, HMS Defender left the territorial sea of the Russian Federation at 12.23pm."
A Russian bomber dropped four high explosive fragmentation bombs as a warning in the British destroyer's path, according to the ministry.
It comes a day after @HMSDefender tweeted: "Thank you for your hospitality, Odesa. Today we have departed with @HNLMS_Evertsen to continue our operations in the Black Sea @UKinUkraine… #WeAreNATO
The incident took place in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
Russian Senator Sergei Tsekov said the warship’s movements were a “flagrant violation of international norms", reported state-run RIA Novosti.
Rob Lee, a doctoral student who follows Russian deployments at King’s College London’s war studies department, told The Moscow Times that Russia's use of warning shots on a NATO vessel marks a “new” development.
“[Russia has] conducted some very aggressive naval and aerial intercepts, but this would be new. And certainly a much bigger deal than normal aggressive intercepts. I'm wary of saying unprecedented, but I can't remember this happening as long as I have been following this,” Mr Lee said.
The academic added the waters were in face Ukrainian on Twitter.
Britain has previously claimed its warships ships stationed are in international or Ukrainian waters.
The ministry's TV channel Zvezda reported: "The Black Sea Fleet together with the FSB (security service) stopped a violation of the Russian border by a British destroyer Defender.
"Today, at 11:52, the Defender crossed the state border of Russia in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
"It entered the territorial waters for three kilometres, in the area of Cape Fiolent."
- Royal Navy
- Fire
- Russia
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